I just uploaded a new story on my website (VIJ2008054) about the military face-off between Cambodia and Thailand about a border dispute around the Preah Vihear temple.
Prasat Preah Vihear (Preah Vihear). 21/07/2008
Prasat Preah Vihear (Preah Vihear). 20/07/2008
Prasat Preah Vihear (Preah Vihear). 21/07/2008
Shot a small story for Ka-set yesterday (VIJ2008053G) on Philippe Sébire who is organising khmer boxing workshops in Cambodia for French amateur boxers who want to get some immersion in the origins of the combat technique. It’ll be published some time next week.
As a reminder: a multimedia slideshow on khmer boxing can be found here or here on the Magnum InMotion website…
Will soon be on my way to Preah Vihear to check on the situation on the border there.
Last night Bayon TV (owned or run by one of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s daughters) organised a huge show at the Olympic Stadium to welcome the delegation, headed by Vice-Premier Sok An, which managed to secure the 11th century temple of Preah Vihear on the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage.
Before the actual party, the Foreign Minister held a long speach explaining the difficult negotiations. On his left was a huge screen with images from the temple and the negotiations table. On his right a screen of the same size showed movie clips of Prime Minister Hun Sen and/or his wife Bun Rany distributing “krama” to the destitute, shaking hands with military, visiting hospitals and attending groundbreaking ceremonies.
The temple is located right next to the border with Thailand who disputes the present line of separation. Over the past months Preah Vihear became much more than an extraordinary temple in a stunning environment. It also triggers the nationalistic chords on both sides of the border. Tempers flare high very quickly beyond reason between the two countries, more often for reasons embedded deep in centuries-old history than for any other.
Right now it seems that having Preah Vihear recognised as an exceptional site is not going to ease the tensions between the two kingdoms. Three Thai were arrested today on the Preah Vihear site by cambodian military while attempting to climb the fence marking the border.
There are nicer ways to come home…
Khem Sambo, 47yrs, journalist at the pro-opposition daily Moneaksekar Khmer, and his son, 21yrs, were killed by a lone gunner in the middle of the street on July 11th.
Today the cremation ceremony took place at the Toul Tompoung pagoda. Sambo is the 12th journalist killed in Cambodia since 1993.
Sorry for the absence.
I’m reconnected now and will try to catch up on this blog: elections are well under way.
Status changes at Magnum:
New members:
Jonas Bendiksen, Antoine D’Agata, Alec Soth
New nominees:
Olivia Arthur, Peter Van Agtmael
Champaign for all…
Today monday I will be on my way to Brussels (yes: Belgium) and unable to connect to the Internet for a few days… Means no updates on this weblog and quite some email backlog..
Sorry I’m late with updating this weblog.
It has been a bit hectic before leaving for Brussels next monday.
There was a portrait of a homosexual talking about what happened to him during the Khmer Rouge regime (story nr VIJ2008046), pictures in a village close to Phnom Penh where there is a concentration of copists producing painted reproductions of Angkor Wat by the square meter (story nr VIJ2008047), a two day trip by various (mostly uncomfortable) means of transportation to a place in the middle of nowhere where people are digging the soil to find gold and heavily polluting the environment by using chemicals (story nr VIJ2008048).
Most of these stories will be published on the Ka-set.info website IF… IF THE SERVER AT MAVEN was working properly. We have been without server for the last twelve hours and it is a disaster, jeopardising our carefully and painstakingly built visibility, ruining our referencing. At the Ka-set office in Phnom Penh we are dealing with daily power cuts, forcing us to work in the deafening noise of a generator (a common situation in the early 90’s but hey, this is the year 2008 in a booming economy!!!!). And if that was not enough now the server lets us down.
But enough complaining here is an image about people who lose much more than we do at Ka-set:
Phnom Penh. 6/06/2008: A group of community advocates has circulated a petition thanking Prime Minister Hun Sen for repeatedly warning those with power to stop taking land and other resources from the poor. Over 42000 names and thumbprints have been collected, a majority from people evicted from their land.